Hello Dallas, Bye Bye Houston.

The Hogs are Cotton Bowl bound after crushing LSU's National Championship hopes in a 50-48 triple-overtime win in Baton Rouge.

Against pretty much the best defense team in the nation, the Razorbacks put up 513 yards total, with 388 of those on the ground in the "Battle for the Boot."

The LSU Tigers have not allowed a 100 yard rusher all season.
Darren McFadden had 206. And 3 touchdowns. And one TD throw.

What's a guy got to do to win a Heisman around here?
As amazing as he was, it was a team effort. LSU had no answer to the triumvirate of McFadden-Jones-Hillis. Along with D-Mac's 3 touchdowns, Hillis had 3, and Jones was crucial in OT, running in the final 2-point conversion.

Poor wikkle tigers.
Lose their title hopes, and most likely their coach to the Wolverines.

Speaking of...Sorry Houston. You've pulled out the biggest win of your Arkansas career, but you're still out. All that this proves is your inconsistency. I wish you well, but (as a UA student and Razorback fan) I'm not sorry to see you go. Well done, but...holla' atcha boy.

But that's for later. Until then, I'll see you guys at the Cotton Bowl.

Stop Teasing Us

Hog fans all across Arkansas were belabored by news outlets and more informing us that Houston Nutt was out at the end of the year. Fired. Gone. Ended. No longer in Fayetteville, but it was all lies... apparently.

I still love the e-mail I got from the school news paper with breaking news, that the sports editor had confirmed it.

The school released information later saying that it was all rumors and blah blah blah.

Who cares. I'd be interesed in how many phone calls and e-mails the athletic department and Chancellor White recieved and which way they went. At this point, it's basically stuff like this that could distract our team and make us lose lose lose. Or could enspire them, but sometimes even inspired teams can lose with bad coaching.

Advice to Current and Future ADs

Ok, so Jeff, Frank, I've brought you guys to my BigFooted and Foolish part of the world to implore you to do something. While asking for this makes me feel dirty and disgusting, I just have to do it.

As you know, in the past I have called for Houston Nutt's Firing. Or at least agreed with those that have. At this point, I don't think he should be coaching the Razorbacks, but you probably can't fire him. Judging by the turmoil surrounding college football, you may have trouble luring another coach out of a good job to come to Arkansas. I'm sure you've got some coaches on the radar, and I'm sure they might be telling you they are interested or at least will be after the season is over, but even if Houston tanks, loses three games, and goes 6-6 your best bet is probably keeping him longer.

Of the schools that will have vacant coaching positions next year, these are the ones I would rank above the Arkansas job.

UCLA
Notre Dame
Texas A&M
Nebraska
Michigan

The word on the street is Tubberville is going to A&M and if that happens then Auburn is up for grabs and that job is at least on Par with the Arkansas job and it will just make it that much harder to suceed.

So go ahead and talk to some guys. Make sure you are in case Houston decides to jump ship to another school, but be prepared for the fact that firing Houston could be a bad idea. I'm not saying he's a good coach, but he's better than no coach. You don't have anyone on your staff that would make a good head coach at this point in their career, but maybe you could start grooming someone.

Be prepared, because the head coaching market is gonna be flooded soon. If you do start talking to people, I would get these guys in this order.

Mark Mangino - Kansas
Chris Peterson - Boise St.
Rich Rodriguez - West Virginia
Jerry Moore - Appalachian State - If you feel like gambling

Darren McFadden is Arkansas

The Razorbacks were able to win their 2nd conference game against their every year opponent South Carolina on Saturday night with help from Darren McFadden and his 321 rushing yards. What a beast!

He is pictured here (courtesy of ESPN.com) with head coach Houston Nutt celebrating the 48-36 win.

Darren McFadden can credit a lot of this great day on the ground for him to the offensive line, but I think having Felix Jones being a credible threat running on the outside during 16 plays where McFadden took the snap and handed off or faked to jones who amassed over 160 yards and 3 touchdowns himself.

The hogs gained bowl eligibility with this win and while they are not mathematically eliminated from a share of the SEC west game, they are playing for respectability, for their Seniors, and for Heisman chances of Darren McFadden. Some people might say they are playing for their coach, and that is completely respectable. They are closer to their coach and they may see the things in a different light than the fans.

This is a great day to celebrate and later this week I will be posting a Barkleyvs.bavetta exclusive interview with outgoing Athletic Director, Frank Broyles.

Now I'll post my favorite Steve Spurrier post game quotes.

"[Arkansas] guys can block,” he said. “They know how to block, which is what linemen are supposed to do. Someday we’re going to have some blockers around here.”

“They didn’t need to throw [11 passes]. … To sum up the game, they pitch the ball to [McFadden ]. He drops it, hits the ground, rolls around a little bit, he picks it up, lobs it in the end zone and we can’t knock it down. And their guy outfights us for the ball. When those kind of things happen, shoot, I don’t know what you can do as a coach except just say, ‘Hey, those other guys just want it more or are better than you or superior up front. ’”

" It looked like a Division III team playing a SEC team, " Spurrier said. " I think the Division III team could have made more plays [on defense] than we did. "

“Arkansas should be a three-touchdown favorite over Tennessee next week.” “ Now I’m just going on two games [against Tennessee last week and Arkansas on Saturday ], but it probably won’t be [a 21-point spread ], ” Spurrier said. “Arkansas is a dang good team, but obviously a lot more physical and stronger than we are.”

This last quote is from Alabama Safety Rashad Johnson when asked if the LSU game was the most physical game he'd been in this season. “I don’t think it was the most physical,” he said. “I think the most physical game I’ve played in since I’ve been here was the Arkansas game. Those guys are really physical.” Rashad Johnson is a Junior for the Tide.

Hot Seat

The nerves in Houston Nutt's butt must be shot. He has been on and off the hot seat several times over the past 10 years. Started off solid then moved onto the hot seat. With a win over LSU in '02 he moved off and into the SEC Championship game where he lost and a loss in the bowl game put him back on the hot seat.



Rescheduling Texas in '03 and '04 the hogs stormed to a 4-0 record and a #7 ranking with road victories at Texas and Alabama. The season went out quietly from there, with 3 more SEC losses for a 4-4 SEC record and a 9-4 record overall and a victory over Missouri in the Independance Bowl.



Somehow riding the hot seat through a 5-6 and a 4-7 season, Houston rode Darren McFadden, Gus Malzahn, and several defensive players now playing for the NFL to a 10-4 record and bought rings for an SEC West championship. The off season put Houston right near the hot seat with E-mail Gate, Freedom on Information Act Requests, and the leaving of heralded recruit, and we go on and on just like it says in the newspapers every two weeks.



After allowing come from behind wins by Bama and Kentucky, coupled with a poor performance against UT Chatt, Houston finds himself the number 1 coach on the hot seat according to http://www.coacheshotseat.com/ .



While many razorback fans are still gearing up for games against Auburn, South Carolina, Tennessee, and LSU, some have already thrown in the towel and are wondering what coach is gonna pick up the pieces that will be left when Houston is fired at the end of the season and Darren McFadden and Felix Jones go to play for NFL teams.



There are still other razorback fans that are far from wondering, they are doing their best to make their opinion heard and are committing zookification on Houston Nutt.

10 years ago when the coaching position at Arkansas was opened up, Houston Nutt went against Tommy Tuberville for the job at Arkansas. Tuberville had just gone 8-4(4-4) with SEC team Ole Miss playing in the SEC, and Houston had just gone 4-7 with Boise St. Houston won the job due to his personality and peppy attitude.

Following the game on Saturday Houston was asked about the banner and his response was "where was the banner when we were 7-0 in the SEC last year?"

I think that's all I got. How screwed up is this situation anyway? I defy any fan to say that their school has a more fucked up athletic program than the University of Arkansas.

It's just not fair

Darren McFadden had a rough day. 27 yards short of 200, Darren McFadden played very well. Stuffering from Stomach Flu and a Defense that couldn't back him up, Darren looks utterly tired here in the 1st half. He only carried 12 times in the 2nd half, but it should've been none. The razorback offense is doing it's job which is in stark contrast to the Razorback teams in the past several years.

Reggie Herring's press coverage scheme worked well for the Razorbacks defensive secondary last year. While not stellar, it was not as embarassing as it is this year. Losing Chris Houston to the 1st round of the draft is tough though. The new scheme is the "watch the receiver catch the ball" scheme. Kentucky QB Andre Woodson loved the hogs secondary as they helped keep his record breaking streak of passing attempts without interceptions alive. The hogs refused to play the ball and gave up several chances at picks and even had a few slip through their hands.

We all know Houston Nutt must be insane right now. After dealing with the crazy post season ride, he seemed so ready to just get back to Football. Houston came into the season with an experienced offense with QB Casey Dick (while not a prolific passer, does a good job managing the game), WR Marcus Monk, FB Peyton Hillis, a solid O-line, and two of the best running backs to ever play at the school or anywhere. The defense was a question, but getting Micheal Grant and Freddie Fairchild back from injury, the defense looked like it would pull together and get enough stops to help the offense win games.

While getting Micheal Grant back from injury with something to prove ended up getting Star Wideout Marcus Monk injured, but these things happen. It should've been apparent then that this season was one that could go disasterously wrong.

The truth of the matter has been that the hogs are on a crazy roller coaster and at the end of every game they just keep going down.